Photo by The Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Posted on 03/27/2015 11:35:57 AM PDT by walford
The BBC just proved that Progressive media serves the tiny elite who think they should run our lives.
It’s official: The BBC have fired Jeremy Clarkson, the main presenter and inventor of the modern version of Top Gear. If you don’t yet know what Top Gear is, go look it up. It pretends to be a show about cars, but it’s actually a fascinating series about three crazy personalities doing insane stunts, and (for very good reasons) it’s been for the last 13 years the most popular non-fiction TV show… in the world.
Photo by The Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The craziest thing about it is that, purely by a series of unusual events that spiraled out of the hands of the elitist snobs who run it, Top Gear was made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC). It was a show being made by a broadcaster run by the type of people who despise the type of show Top Gear is: funny, fascinating, utterly irreverent, not environmentally friendly, starring three middle-aged white guys, not even a tiny bit politically correct, and incredibly astoundingly popular. Most sinful of all to them: it makes money. Tons and tons of money. For these types, anything that makes money because it’s popular with everyday people is the very definition of a show that does not under any circumstances belong on the BBC.
The BBC has always, from its inception, been supposed to act in the interest of the British Public. This was understood on its creation to mean that it would put the audiences first, and provide informative, creative and entertaining programming to the British public. This was so important that the BBC’s programming is supposed to be judged not by how much money a show makes (in fact, the vast majority of their shows make no money at all, being instead financed by a TV ownership tax), but by something called the “Audience Appreciation Index”. This is a measurement of how much the public appreciates the program. This is supposed to determine what shows should be be on the BBC.
But it has also been a reality that, almost from the beginning, the BBC has always been run by elitists who felt they knew better than the public, and that they should get to dictate TO (rather than be dictated by) the British public as to what is best to them. The BBC bosses have always been partisans of whatever ideology was the most elitist, the most sanctimonious, the most anti-public, in any given age: in the 60s and 70s it was full of communists, today it is full of Politically-correct Progressives. They are almost always Leftist, always Collectivist, and almost always humorless.
And the BBC’s mid-level bureaucrats have always, always hated Top Gear. The current BBC’s manager, Danny Cohen, had been very vocal about how desperate he was to get rid of Jeremy Clarkson, and now he got his wish. In the process, it made a pretty startling revelation as to how Collectivists work, and who they serve.
When it was announced that the BBC was using a dinnertime argument as an excuse to fire (or “sack” as they say across the pond) the driving force behind Top Gear, two big petitions were being promoted across the social media almost instantly. The first was in support of Clarkson, demanding that the BBC not fire him; it ended up with over a million signatures and became the fastest-growing petition in the history of change.org. The second demanded that Clarkson be fired for his various crimes against humanity (which mostly consisted of being anti-Europe, anti-Left, anti-nanny-state, and anti-political-correctness). This petition garnered a whopping 34127 signatures. It featured, in brazen shamelessness, a completely un-ironic picture of Clarkson with his mouth gagged on it, making it very clear what these people wanted: to totally silence those who disagree with them.
This is an interesting result for two reasons. First, it gives us a very good, albeit non-scientific, look at just what the divide between the Collectivist elitists and the Individualists is: the Collectivist-Crowd made up about 3.2% of the population who signed either petition. These are the people who are strident in their advocacy of the Collectivist values of the modern “progressive” Left, that believe in pogroms against free speech; but more importantly, that will despise anything just because everyday people like it too much. After all, Top Gear was not an overtly political show; this wasn’t a battle against a right-wing radio talk show or something like that.
Top Gear‘s immense popularity allowed it to survive for 13 years without the BBC Commisars being able to shut it down in spite of Jeremy Clarkson’s outspoken anti-PC views, but the show itself was mostly about having wild irreverent fun with cars (seriously, if you’ve never seen it go watch it now; I don’t like cars, I haven’t even driven a car in almost 20 years, but I love the show, not for the cars but for the passion and humor and brilliance of it). So for the Collectivists, getting rid of Jeremy Clarkson wasn’t just about getting rid of Jeremy Clarkson, it was also about getting rid of a show that they hated for being too proletarian, too popular with the unwashed masses who they feel can’t be trusted and who should be told what is the proper kind of fun to have. The show itself was dangerous to them, because it suggested to ordinary people that they could and should have a free choice about what they enjoy, without all the special considerations the Elites put into the (always far less popular) programs that they have chosen for the correct indoctrination of the ‘unwashed masses’. This 3.2% resented Top Gear‘s existence because it was a loud (and fun) statement against their notion that they should control the other 97.8% of us.
Second, it made it very clear where the BBC stands on this. They have regularly influenced the facts of their reporting to represent the liberal biases of their mid-level bureaucrats: having downplayed a massive child-abuse scandal that was going on in England because they felt it would look “racist”, having consistently refused to use the word “terrorism” (even during the brutal Mumbai terrorist attacks), and have bent over backward to appease the pro-Palestine anti-Israel Leftists to the point of claiming that Jerusalem is the “capital” of Palestine and that Israel has no capital. They have openly admitted to their intense anti-American bias ), they have been found in two different independent reports of having an extreme pro-European-Union bias, and a pro-immigrant bias that focused on anecdotal personal stories rather than concrete data as a way to influence the public. Here, with Jeremy Clarkson, they suddenly felt they had to take a ‘strong principled stand’ about ‘policing their own house’ because God forbid a man who makes them more than a hundred million dollars a year and invented the most popular TV show they currently air should get mad about the BBC crew not having a hot meal for him at the end of a full day’s work. And yet they never felt the need to take such a stand for the THIRTY YEARS they spent actively covering up pedophile scandals in their own studio.
The BBC stands with the 3.2%, with the over-indoctrinated self-satisfied elitists, and against the 97.8% of the public they were chartered to serve.
I can tell you how the rest of this will play out from here, too. Clarkson and his co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond (who will almost certainly choose to leave with him) will, if they so desire, get a new contract for insanely more money than the BBC ever gave them, to do a Top Gear-clone for a private broadcaster. That show will be more popular than ever. 
Source: Twitter
Meanwhile, the BBC will almost certainly re-staff Top Gear with presenters chosen for their identity-politic demographics (race, gender, sexuality; you know, all that stuff that’s so incredibly important as a qualification to host a show about driving fast cars) rather than anything resembling a personality. They’ll retool the show to get rid of the most “offensive” parts, and to make it more “educational”. It will be a horrific flop, which will allow the BBC executives to do what they wanted in the first place and either cancel it or relegate it to bleakest outlying corners of their government-funded media empire, and then do a lot of commentary on “News” shows about how the failure of the New Top Gear was the public’s fault for being such horrible racists/sexists/whatever.
And the 3.2% will sagely nod in agreement and bemoan the cruelty of a world full of people who are so much less sophisticated and righteous than they are, and wonder why these ignorants don’t just give in and let them run all our lives.
The “talent” in radio/TV is considered the publicly visible part of the program. There are also producers, support staff and directors.
Many people wear two hats. I have been writer, producer, director and talent.
A person can be any or all of those.
I’m sure by now he’s gotten several offers from cable networks that actually want to make money.
Exactly. I just cannot fathom the posters who refuse to say Clarkson was the talent. Of course we was.
it may have been the last straw to Clarkson
n
That is my take but I do’t really know.
It may have been related to contract negotiations.
“All’s well that ends well.”
Great entertainment, but it was probably time to move on. Clarkson is in his 50s. Some of those trips looked to be exhausting. This way, he goes out with a bang. It’s classic Clarkson, unapologetic and putting the spotlight on him.
He needled Americans, but he needles everyone.
Thanks Jezer. Thanks Hamster. Thanks Captain Slow. It was like watching my high school friends.
The punch is just the justification the BBC wanted.
He probably had issues with the producer and eventually it came to blows. I doubt he had enough control over the show to choose producers and didn’t like him much. BBC would have been best served with changing producers.
They’ve implied that Richard and James will leave the show too...I’d imagine they would, the three of them will make lots of money with a new show...has anybody heard if The Stig is leaving too?
I don’t think the US can duplicate British TV humor, not sure why, maybe it’s the PC. But the American version of Top Gear was boring, and not funny at all.
Red Dwarf was another example of a British show that was just plain funny but totally non PC. But on the other hand The Office, the original British version, was toned down for US and I do think that was a good thing.
The Stig doesn't matter, he's anonymous and they can probably suit up any race car driver to take his place. The sad part is that I'm sure the STIG (anonymous race car driver in white suit) is part of the program and can't be on any new show Jezza does.
So, put him in a pair of coverals and call him the Steve.
“I don’t know and neither do you.”
I don’t have to know who is the boss. That is a non sequitur to even bring that up.
No one has the right to assault another over a business disagreement of any kind. Period.
All he blah, blah, blah about who owns what or who is the boss means nothing.
I liked both, but I preferred the BBC version of The Office.
If I had a nickel for every time I have been in a physical confrontation with a co-worker or a friend at a bar I would have more money than Clarkson.
Then again, I’m guy.
Born in the 40’s - 50’s guy.
Not a Nancy boy.
Yes they do. I don't remember what season or episode# it was, but the three of them came over to the US and flew down to Florida.
In this episode, they were supposed to buy a car in South Florida (Miami?) for something like $1500 and drive them to New Orleans
The trip was a complete hoot with only Captain Slow having AC (until Jeremy broke it of course.) They stopped somewhere in Mississippi (?) and painted each others cars with different slogans.
Hammond's truck had "I'm Gay" written all over it, Clarkson was driving a mid-80's Camaro with "Nascar SUCKS" written all over it and May drove a late 70's early 80's Cadillac Fleetwood with "Hillary for President" written on it.
Best part of the episode was when they stopped for gas somewhere in Mississippi.
Southerners really don't like people with "Nascar Sucks" and "Hillary for President" painted on their vehicles (forget about the over the top "I'm Gay" on Hammond's old Dodge pickup.)
I had tears running from my eyes I was laughing so hard at the gas station scene.
Still my favorite episode of them all, and I give the BBC 30 days before they cave and announce Clarkson, Hammon and May are back next season.
Top Gear is seen in over 150 countries (read that somewhere...) and is Britain's #1 export around the world. The BBC has to wake up and realize where their revenue's coming from and the truth is, that show is NOTHING without Clarkson. May and Hammond know it too.
The BBC doesn't have to worry too much about funding... it's paid for by the govt. and a $215 yearly license fee (aka tax) on every TV...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
